House Republicans want to prevent the Pentagon from removing a Confederate memorial from “America’s most sacred shrine,” Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia led a group of more than 40 GOP colleagues in calling for the Department of Defense to halt the planned removal of the Reconciliation Monument, also known as the Confederate Memorial, “until Congress completes the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 appropriations process.”
In a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, the GOP lawmakers said the monument’s removal “does not align with the original intent of Congress.”
Nope. Lincoln wasn’t threatening to free the slaves prior to seceesion, and the Escaped Slaves Act was federal law. Southern states had the majority in Congress, but individual states like Wisconsin and Vermont were freeing slaves that reached their borders, and Lincoln was not going to use force to override states rights. The articles of secession were written because the southern states didn’t think the Union was doing enough to enforce slavery, which was, at least on paper, mandatory.